Bill Tieleman is one of BC's best known communicators, political commentators and strategists.
Bill writes a politics column Tuesdays in 24 Hours newspaper and The Tyee online magazine.
Bill has been Communications Director in the B.C. Premier's Office and at the BC Federation of Labour.
Bill owns West Star Communications, a consulting firm providing strategy and communication services for labour, business, non-profits and government.

The number of hypocrites promoting the $5.5 billion Enbridge pipeline through northern B.C. that would ship "ethical oil" to China by tankers is astonishing.

First, pumping Alberta tar sands or oil sands oil -- who cares what term we use other than theindustry -- by a pipeline through pristine B.C. wilderness to the port of Kitimat is damaging enough.

Enbridge's pipeline spill record is scary -- 170 spills and leaks in the United States since 2002 byEnbridge-owned companies.

Enbridge says it's got a better than industry average but Transportation Safety Board says Enbridge and TransCanada were involved in three out of four of reported cases in last two years.

South of the border, don't bother jumping in or fishing on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan -- Enbridge spilled more than one million gallons of diluted bitumen there in July 2010, and the clean up continues.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says there is "a ban on surface water activities on the Kalamazoo River as part of the county's state of emergency, including swimming, wading, fishing, boating, canoeing and kayaking... No one should eat fish of any kind from this stretch of the river."

Then Enbridge would ship oil by giant tankers through dangerous B.C. coastal waters, one of the world's most fragile ecosystems -- and it says everything is totally safe. Just watch this video!

Right. Exxon Valdez going aground in 1989, British Petroleum oil rig explosion in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana -- what could go wrong?

China, our ethical customer?

At a time when a huge cruise ship with 4,200 passengers in the calm Mediterranean can run aground and sink with potentially disastrous environmental results, the industry claims oil tankers are safe?

And where is the "ethical oil" going to go? Mostly to prop up the repressive Communist military dictatorship in China.

"Ethical oil" will keep the machinery oiled for a government that throws world-renowned artists like Ai Weiwei and Nobel Prize-winning human rights activist Liu Xiaobo in jail for daring to want every citizen to get a democratic vote and a choice of parties beyond Communist.

So while the Arab Spring overthrows brutal oil dictators like Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia -- we grease the skids for more Chinese repression.

Of course, if the "ethical oil" crew and their Conservative government fan club really cared about foreign intervention that is morally and deeply wrong, they would have been the first to demand Canadian company SNC Lavalin stop building prisons for Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi to torture his own people.

But that would mean criticizing SNC Lavalin's $300,000 a year chair Gwyn Morgan, the hard right-winger who is a Christy Clark advisor, was CEO of natural gas giant Encana and who calls Levant his "favourite iconoclast."

Pumped up indignation

Or the ethical oil can gang might have joined forces with those opposed to the massive takeovers of our country's biggest companies by U.S., Chinese, Brazilian and other foreign corporations -- allying themselves with the nationalist Council of Canadians.

But they didn't. They only use the foreign intervention card to help their non-Canadian petrochemical pals push the Enbridge pipeline past those nasty environmentalists.

It's a cynical strategy made worse by their pumped up indignation.

And while Enbridge would admittedly create lots of construction work building the pipeline, once competed how many permanent jobs does B.C. get from all this risk?

18 comments:

e.a.f.
said...

Good column!

I don't know anyone who believes "ethical oil" is ethical. Some people may support the pipeline and tankers because they mistakenly believe it will create jobs.

yes, it will create a few jobs, as your column pointed out but the real jobs will come from clean up of the spills. Of course the spills will destroy many other jobs which were much more helpful to the economy & citizens of B.C.

Voters gave Harper a majority and now we will have to live with the results. Harper will push the pipeline through unless he thinks there will be an open revolt.

There really isn't much democracy at work here. The only differance is we voted who would be the dictator. We can just wait until enviornmental activitists start having "government agents" calling at their doors.

I just wonder what Harper has been promised to let this, enviornmental disaster waiting to happen, be built. Oh, ya, when he retires we can expect to see him on the Board of Directors of some large oil company. The guy hasn't had a "real" job in the "real" world.

What really baffles me is why China has any interest at all in our natural gas or Alberta's tar when they share a border with Afghanistan which has a proven 236 trillion cbic feet of natural gas reserves and an estimated 270 billion barrels of oil.

Many nations have fought to establish a reasonably stable government there so they could develop and supply their natural resources.

Surely it makes more sense for China to pipe Afghanny crude to their refiners than go over mountains and across oceans for their needs.

yes, it will create a few jobs, as your column pointed out but the real jobs will come from clean up of the spills. Of course the spills will destroy many other jobs which were much more helpful to the economy & citizens of B.C.

Voters gave Harper a majority and now we will have to live with the results. Harper will push the pipeline through unless he thinks there will be an open revolt.

There really isn't much democracy at work here. The only differance is we voted who would be the dictator

More B.S. The pipeline is not a done deal (it will be at least 6 years away).

What is missing out of this equation is why not build a finishing product refinery in the Peace River area to create more badly needed jobs?

And the part about the dictator is also laughable. Would there be a dictatorship when the NDP wins with Brian Topp as Prime Minister (same position in government, diferent leader and party!!)

Where was e.a.f when the election was ongoing? Too lazy to help the NDP I suppose.

There is no such thing as ethical oil, it's all bad. However, the dirty tar sands oil is the dirtiest energy on the planet.

At the meetings of the nations in Durban, there was a strong indication, they were taking climate change, very, very seriously. Harper was at that meeting, to bully country's to accept, the dirty tar sands oil. He wasn't exactly a hit at that meeting either.

Enbridge also had a 1,500 barrel spill in Wrigley N.W.T. This was when Slave Lake was burning.

The Campbell/Clark BC Liberals, are not protecting BC jobs. The U.S. company that won the tear down of the smelter in Kitimat, brought their own workers.

Same as China sending their people to school to learn English, they will work the coal mines.

Who knows, the seven mines going into Northern BC, if foreign owned, may bring their own miners.

Enbridge has their own crew. When the pipeline is done, so are the jobs. The pumping station to load the tankers...somewhere I read, takes 15 people.

Harper and Campbell have thieved enough from this province and the people.

Campbell sold our rivers, a total eco mess destroyed salmon runs. Campbell's election lie, the BCR wasn't for sale. BC people lost that heritage too. The filthy diseased fish farms, are still killing off our wild salmon, another heritage of the BC people, that we are losing.

We have another fight coming up. They want to log our Rain Forest.It is imperative, we fight the dirty tar tankers, the Chinese freighters will use that same channel, to pick up our raw logs.

Depending, what country's Harper can con into taking the dirty oil? We could have hoards of tankers, coming into that same channel.

I even think, Obama has delayed the Keystone pipeline. If Harper forces the Enbridge and the dirty tankers. Would it not be easier for Obama to send their tankers through the channel too? He could avoid the battle over the Keystone pipeline. It's just my own thought and not read anywhere else.

Agree. And those adamantly for non petroleum resources can persuade Bill here not to use his car, not to use anything made out of plastics (including his PC, keyboard, mouse etc.), and while they are at it, they can market an idea that would make it easy to move around BC in cold rain without riding a bicycle.

Bill Tieleman and Senator Larry Campbell, former Vancouver mayor

Jim Sinclair, Cindy Oliver, Ken Georgetti and Bill Tieleman

Bill Tieleman's coverage of the Basi-Virk/BC Legislature Raid Case praised by other journalists:

"This outstanding piece of journalism, in The Tyee, is the work of a journalist who has been deeply involved with this issue from the start and this article should be passed on as far and wide as possible."

"Bill Tieleman from 24 hours . . . . If you want to know about this trial and about this case, you have to read his blog – I mean, that’s just all there is to it – it’s required reading if you want to understand the BC Legislature Raid situation."

- Mike Smyth, columnist, The Province

"The Basi-Virk case....you’ve probably sat through more of these hearings and gone through more of the files and written about it than any other journalist in the province."

- Bill Good, host, The Bill Good Show, CKNW/Corus Radio Network

"Tieleman ...has done a first-rate job covering the trial."

- Paul Willcocks, columnist, the Victoria Times-Colonist

"Tieleman, who marries a considerable journalistic talent with one of the smartest political minds in the province, has been writing more web-exclusive material. And his coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is a must-read -- whether you're an insider or an outsider."

"24 Hours, the Vancouver paper that has been leading the coverage, as well as the hints of conspiracy in B.C."

- Norman Spector, columnist, Globe and Mail

"Although the major media in this circumstance has been giving the case significant coverage, Tieleman's reports on his blog have been outstanding.

The entire cut and thrust of legal wrangling and arguments has been covered and is accompanied by considered analysis.....His blog site coverage of the Basi-Virk trial is the most in depth treatment of one of British Columbia's biggest political scandals."

- Bill Bell, columnist, The North Shore News

"Mr. Tieleman has published online dispatches which, freed from the limitations of newsprint space or broadcast time, can run at length. They also remain available for those select readers who become obsessed with a case also known as Railgate.....

In another bizarre twist to a story with no shortage of them, Mr. Tieleman went to work one day in December only to discover his office had been ransacked. Bookcases had been tipped over and papers strewn, but nothing was missing.

To top it off, a press kit for the self-published novel The Raid, written by a retired military officer in Metchosin and featuring on its cover a photograph from the 2003 police raid, had been left in a conspicuous place."

- Tom Hawthorn, columnist, The Globe and Mail

Nobody has followed the Basi-Virk affair over its past five years with greater diligence than local journalist, Bill Tieleman....Tieleman deserves our thanks, a fistful of journalism awards and some merit citation for citizenship.